Day 13 pt. 2

Day 13 (PT 1): 15 miles

After finishing the BMT I caught a ride from Springer back into Blue Ridge. I hung out at Burger King there for a while before heading back out to start the Pinhoti Trail in the same day. I’m tired and do want to take a bit of a break, but it’s a nice day and I’d feel foolish resting indoors on a nice day. I’m going to try to make it to Dalton on the pinhoti trail by Tuesday. It’s supposed to rain and be pretty nasty Tuesday so hopefully I can get my rest day then.

I’m really disappointed in myself lately. I keep forgetting my terminus beers. So I figured I might as well go tarps off or my terminus pic because why not #BodyByBurgerKing

After I got back on the trail to start the Pinhoti, it was quite the welcome party. On my walk to get to the terminus to start, I had 2 stream crossings that should’ve probably been fords but I decided to take some risky log crossings and made it both times.

Then to start out the trail I probably had 6-8 fords and 3-4 more risky log crossings that probably should’ve been fords. This area of the trail was wrecked by a bunch of downed trees, but the fords would always be there regardless. And it looks like some trail crews have been out working on clearing up the trees cause it wasn’t as bad as other hikers made it sound.

It was a really lush green section with running water all around. There were some cool waterfalls. I also appreciated having some shade. I didn’t anticipate how leafless a lot of the trees would still be. I expected to be walking under a canopy the whole time but that had not been the case. I’m hoping I get some more tree coverage as I go south to protect me from the sun.

In the last half mile of the day I got lazy. I was crossing a stream on a log and wasn’t paying full attention. I lost my balance and had to drop my left foot into the steam to balance myself. I didn’t fall in, but I got my shoe soaked and I doubt it will dry overnight.

As I’m typing this there are some sort of cicada-related bug making loud noises all around me. I don’t realize how loud it is until they stop and my ears are ringing. Hope I don’t go deaf overnight.